Plans for City on Mars Revealed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk

The Martian pioneer wants to build a colony on the red planet within our lifetime.

Blueprints for a Martian city give new insight into life on Mars—human life, that is.

Elon Musk shared his vision for a city built on the red planet in an article published in the journal New Space. SpaceX CEO wants to launch a manned mission to Mars, to start colonizing the planet, as early as 2024.

“By talking about the SpaceX Mars architecture, I want to make Mars seem possible—make it seem as though it is something that we can do in our lifetime,” Musk wrote.

In his plans, the entrepreneur said Mars is “far better-suited ultimately to scale up to be a self-sustaining civilization.” The atmosphere lends itself to growing plants since it can be compressed to create a nutrient-rich environment, but the air would have to be heated slightly to make it work.

Musk admits the price of Mars colonization efforts has to get slashed before his ambitious plans could become a possibility. According to Newsweek, it would cost $10 billion.

Without reusable materials on Mars, sustaining a colony would be incredibly inefficient. It would take an immense amount of time and money to send people and resources from Earth. That’s much of the reason for SpaceX’s rocket recycling initiative.